


1461 days

by brucewaynery



Category: DCU
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:14:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22971559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brucewaynery/pseuds/brucewaynery
Summary: It's Clark's birthday. Bruce decides to find out what, or who, he wants.(or Clark is allergic to asking for things he wants, and Bruce does anyway)
Relationships: Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 17
Kudos: 360





	1461 days

**Author's Note:**

> i am a fool + this was meant to post yesterday (29/2/20) but here we are!

“Hypothetically,” Bruce starts, “if I wanted to get a present for my friend, how would I, hypothetically, go about that?”

Clark has that look on his face that means he desperately wants to laugh at Bruce but, out of some mid-western-bred politeness, refrains from doing so, “Well, what’s the occasion. Hypothetically.” Clark is sitting cross-legged in the air, helping Bruce with a case that has something to do with the increase of muggings in Metropolis and stabbings in Gotham, which is what Bruce told himself to justify asking Clark to come by.

“It’s a rare occasion,” Bruce says, in lieu of ‘birthday’, because that would be all too obvious.

Clark raises an eyebrow. “How rare?”

Bruce scowls. “It occurs every 1461 days.”

Clark has that look in his eye, which reminds Bruce that he’s far more clever than he lets on. “Every four years? Well, I’m not too sure you can give the Olympic games a gift, but you can always ask the IOC.” And far more of a troll than he decides to the public know, in either of his identities.

Bruce’s scowl deepens, “I need to get a present for a person… a person I care very much for.”

And it’s far too obvious, but it doesn’t really matter, it’s not the present that matters, not really, Bruce has more money than the total wealth of over 30 countries: he could buy a good present. It’s the fact that he’s known Clark for so long, long enough for two of his birthdays to pass, and he still doesn’t know what he would want, the first time, Clark had told him to donate to a charity, the second, he’d asked for help with his mother’s mortgage. Bruce wonders if it’s physically impossible for Clark to ask for things he wants, for himself, and then he realises he shouldn’t have to ask if Bruce already knew.

“You don’t have to get me anything, Bruce,” Clark says softly.

Bruce looks away, Clark has a tendency to be so emotionally intense, and sincere, even when he didn’t have to be, and it might just be the brilliant, unearthly blue of his eyes, but so much of what he says holds gravitas in any conversation, Bruce just has to look away, on risk of getting swept up in them.

“I’ve known you for a decade,” Bruce says, simply and honestly, “We have known each other for longer than Dick has been Nightwing, and the Justice League has existed, and longer than Damian has even been alive and I still don’t know what you want for your birthday. Not your mother, not Cancer Research, you.”

Clark, infuriatingly, just shrugs, “There’s nothing attainable I want.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing.”

It’s not a hesitation, per se, because Clark’s Kryptonian biology doesn’t really allow for it. It’s a tiny, so very imperceptible pause, like a minuscule fermata over a hemidemisemiquaver, and Bruce knows that he’s on a very short list of people who could identify it, and even so, he’s half-sure he imagined it, but it’s there.

Bruce just looks at him, and Clark knows he’s been caught out, though he doesn’t admit it.

“Not like Superman to lie,” Bruce comments lightly. If Clark wants to tell him, he’ll tell him.

“Wasn’t lying,” Clark mutters, and this time, it’s him breaking eye contact, suddenly finding the Batmobile fascinating. In all honesty, it is a pretty fascinating car.

He knows before he said it that he’s pushing too far, because that’s what he does, as Batman, as Bruce Wayne, he pushes and pushes until he gets what he wants, but it’s out: “Clark.”

The last of Clark’s lighthearted demeanour slips away into something more… regretful.

“You’re my best friend, Bruce, and I tend not to keep secrets but just… drop it, okay?”

Bruce nods and turns back to his crime stats and pretends to not notice Clark leave, or the hand he presses to Bruce’s shoulder. _Forgiven_.

Bruce knows not to push, he knows that he should drop it, he knows and yet he still calls Lois Lane. 

“What does Clark Kent want most in this world?” 

Lois hesitates over the line, “Who are you?”

“A friend.”

“From his… night job?”

“Yes. It’s for his birthday.”

Lois makes a noise that’s neither resigned nor annoyed, but Bruce can’t help but sense both. “In that case, you may want to alter your question.” The end-call signal echoes around the room.

Bruce revises the question and gives himself three possibilities:

**1\. What does Superman want most in this world?**

Though Bruce dispels that almost immediately. If he wanted to give Superman a present, he would have approached him as Brucie Wayne and made it a public ordeal and by the end of it, Clark would have inevitably been forced to write an article along the lines of ‘Does Superman deserve a birthday present if he doesn’t have a birthday?’, and Clark tries to keep neutral when he writes about Superman, but Bruce is pretty sure a meta introspective would have put him in one of those moods where he’ll write a note saying he’ll be gone for an indeterminate amount of time and he promises to make up for it, and what it really means is that he’s testing how fast he can really go by flying between the planets. 

**2\. What does Clark Kent want most in this universe?**

This also gets dispelled immediately, for if what he wants isn’t on earth, he could probably get it himself, with no help from Bruce. And he’d have it already.

**3\. Who does Clark Kent want most in this world?**

That terrifies Bruce the most, and he doesn’t particularly want to delve into why. (Because he’s kept it under wraps for god knows how long, he can carry on until god knows when). But it’s also the one that makes the most sense.

He dials Lois again. 

“Who?” 

This time, he can feel her annoyance practically radiating off her, “Why don’t you ask him?”

“How well do you know him?” Bruce says, in a voice far too snarky to someone who he’s come to for advice.

“Ask _him_ ,” Lois says, and hangs up again, though Bruce is pretty sure that he deserved that.

Bruce tips back in his chair, tilts his head towards the ceiling and calls out, “Clark,” and waits.

He doesn’t take very long, he never does, once, a few years ago, he’d told him that he always listens to the heartbeats of people he cares about, his mother, Lois, him, and Bruce had felt such pure wonder and care at being on such a short list, the feeling to lean in and kiss that sheepish smile off his face was stronger than it had any right to be, and he’d almost acted on it, but Clark had heard an earthquake and they’d never mentioned it. After the earthquake, though, Clark had left for his planetary adventures and Bruce found himself holed up in the Cave those days he was gone.

“I thought I told you to drop it.”

“And you came here anyway.”

Clark reassumes his earlier position, and Bruce takes that as permission to talk.

“I asked Lois,” Clark frowns and his jaw clenches, “and she said I had been asking the wrong question.”

Before he asks, he knows it’s a bad idea, he knows that if Clark says someone, he might not be able to handle it, he knows it’s stupid and foolish, but that doesn’t stop him from asking, “Who do you want most in this world, Clark?”

A million different expressions fall over Clark’s face, and Bruce just about barely catches one, the one he uses when a battle is going incredibly poorly and he has to do something objectionable, when he thinks he’s about to die and he’s desperately trying not to show how terrified he is. 

That’s when he kisses Bruce, fast and chaste. Bruce blinks at him once, all the pieces falling together, before he tugs on the back of his neck and kisses him again and again and again.

**Author's Note:**

> \+ clark can (cannonically) move 16-20 times the speed of light (3*10^8 m/s) in the vacuum of space (not on earth bc atmosphere things (the flash can bc he uses the speedforce)), so it would take him around 14 hours (at 18*lightspeed) to do a lap of the solar system
> 
> anyway! thank you for reading!! leave a comment if u liked it <33
> 
> tumblr: 1872s


End file.
